


The Heat That Drives The Light

by AmbitiousWitch



Series: Ambitious Witch's Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Not Beta Read, Post-Episode: s06e08 Let's Kill Hitler, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2019-06-01
Packaged: 2020-04-05 20:23:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19047736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbitiousWitch/pseuds/AmbitiousWitch
Summary: Melody wakes up in the hospital after making the most important decision of her life.





	The Heat That Drives The Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mia_Zeklos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mia_Zeklos/gifts).



> Okay! No, I am not abandoning my main story, the chapter is just getting longer and longer. 
> 
> This is for my friend Mia_Zeklos, who gave me this prompt from a Hozier title generator. It has been time since I have it in my inbox, but tonight the inspiration kicked, so I hope you enjoy it, dear.
> 
> If anyone wants to send me prompts to my blog, [my inbox](https://ambitious-witch.tumblr.com/ask) is always open and [my prompt list here](https://ambitious-witch.tumblr.com/tagged/writing-prompts), you can choose any prompt you like with any pairing except Twelve/River. 
> 
> No beta, all the mistakes are mine.
> 
> Comments are appreciated!

Melody wakes up again after a few hours. Her head is better than the last time, dizzy, but not like when she woke up with her parents standing over her. Instead, the Doctor is sitting in a chair alongside her bed, resting his head in her hands.

He doesn’t look like a man that just came back to life after dying in such a painful way.

River remembers his battered face when he said ‘the Doctor lies.’

“Was it true?” she says, her voice husky for the lack of use. The Doctor lifts his face and looks at her, surprised. “What you said?”

“You shouldn’t have done it,” he mutters instead of answering, “those were your lives, River, you could have  _centuries_ for you— “

“I would have had centuries as Melody Pond, the Silence’s Puppet,” she cuts him getting up and reaching for one of her hands. “Now I can see what will be like to be River Song, whoever she is, she looks like she has a lot more than I do.”

“That doesn’t make it right, I— “ he sighs. “I just have no regenerations left, River, you wasted yours for nothing.”

“I didn’t,” Melody resorts firmly. “I gave them to you. And I still have a Gallifreyan’s lifespan, Doctor. I still have centuries for me.”

 _For us_ , she wants to say, but she thinks that with his current mood that wouldn’t be wise.

“I wish I could take it back,” he says, stubborn and she snorts.

“You can’t, but you know what you can do?”

“What?”

“Make it worth it.”

He stares at her with those ancient green eyes, looking as old as the mountains, as old as the stories that she has been told. In those stories, she was the saviour with a mission, the knight that slew the dragon. And in them, the only names that he had were _demon_ , _goblin_ , _monster._

And now, her monster is looking at her, with the most beautiful eyes she has ever seen. And aren’t the worst demons the ones that are beautiful? Maybe, thought all the monsters in her head have always been horrible, white as snow. And this one has always been with her, almost as much as _them_.

Maybe Melody was not the hero, maybe she was a sacrifice. A sacrifice to smother a bright light, too bright for the monsters that raised her. But instead of doing it, she made it brighter. She lighted him up, burned him, like the heat that drives the light.

“You didn’t answer me,” she says, getting closer so he can’t avoid her eyes. “Was it true?”

The Doctor opens his mouth and closes it, but then nods, and there is sadness in his eyes that she can’t quite place. How long took River Song to read them? How long will it take her?

He cups her face on his hands and kisses her, holding her like she is something precious. Is not like their first kiss, a poisoned one. Not like the second, where she had been the one holding him and still could taste the poison, along with his concern. This one is different, this one is a promise:

_I’ll make it worth it._


End file.
